RIA Wars: Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe AIR, Mozilla Prism
Well folks, we saw this comming a mile away!
In the brave new world of the Web2.0, RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) there is no room for slackers, and now we can enjoy not one or two but three choices to develop and deliver (and why not: ENJOY) Internet in a new and sophisticated way.
Microsoft Silverlight
My personal Favorite.
Microsoft Silverlight is a versatile cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.
Silverlight Runtime – Feature Matrix
| Cross-Browser Support for Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera | ||
| Cross-Platform Support for Windows and Mac (and Linux through the Moonlight Project) | ||
| 2D Vector Animation/Graphics | ||
| AJAX Support | ||
| HTML DOM Integration | ||
| HTTP Networking | ||
| Canvas Layout Support | ||
| JavaScript Support | ||
| Silverlight ASP.NET Controls (asp:media, asp:xaml) | ||
| XAML Parser (based on WPF) | ||
| Media – 720P High Definition (HD) Video | ||
| Media – Audio/Video Support (VC-1, WMV, WMA, MP3) | ||
| Media – Image Support (JPG, PNG) | ||
| Media Markers | ||
| Windows Media Server Support | ||
| Support for Visual Basic.NET and C#; Common Language Runtime (CLR) based languages | ||
| Support for IronPython, IronRuby, Managed JScript, and other Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) based languages | ||
| Rich Core Framework (e.g. Generics, collections) | ||
| Multi-Threading | ||
| Layout controls including StackPanel and Grid | ||
| Full suite of Controls (TextBox, RadioButton, Slider, Calendar, DatePicker, DataGrid, ListBox, TabControl, and others) | ||
| Managed Control Framework | ||
| Templating Model | ||
| Visual State Manager | ||
| Isolated Storage | ||
| Deep Zoom Technology | ||
| Media – DRM Powered by PlayReady | ||
| Media – Windows Media Audio 10 Professional support | ||
| Media – MediaStreamSource for managed code media file parser and protocol extensibility | ||
| High quality resizing | ||
| Media – Basic SSPL Support | ||
| Cross Domain Network Access | ||
| Easy access to server-side data via Web Services | ||
| Direct access to TCP sockets | ||
| Interoperability with SOAP and REST services, including support for XML, JSON, RSS and Atom data formats | ||
| LINQ (including LINQ to XML, LINQ to JSON, and LINQ to Entities) | ||
| Duplex communications (“push” from Server to Silverlight client) | ||
| Data Binding | ||
| ADO.NET Data Services | ||
| Managed HTML Bridge | ||
| Managed Exception Handling | ||
| .NET Framework Security Enforcement | ||
| Type Safety Verification | ||
| XMLReader/Writer | ||
| Enhanced Keyboard Input Support | ||
| File Upload Support (via WebClient API) | ||
| WPF Compatibility | ||
| Accessibility | ||
| Localization | ||
| Remote Debugging (PC and Mac) |
Silverlight’s support for .NET, High Definition video, cost-effective advanced streaming, unparalleled high-resolution interactivity with Deep Zoom technology, and controls, businesses can reach out to new markets across the Web, desktop, and devices.
Let’s not forget that the brand new Silverlight 2.0 is also integrated on the SURFACE project (Multi-tactile GUI)
Adobe AIR
Adobe® AIR™ runtime lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that deploy to the desktop and run across operating systems.
Adobe AIR offers an exciting new way to engage customers with innovative, branded desktop applications, without requiring changes to existing technology, people, or processes.
Mozilla Prism
In essence, Mozila Prism is an application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop.
(A plus side of this, is that it lets users add their favorite web apps to their desktop environment and when invoked, these applications run in their own window)
They are accessible with Control-Tab, Command-Tab, and Exposé, just like desktop apps. And users can still access these same applications from any web browser when they are away from their own computers.
Links:
Adobe Air:
http://www.adobe.com/products/air/
Microsoft Silverlight:
Mozilla Prism:
Source Code for Google Chrome
Well, it’s been quite a while, but here I am again.
Many developers want to get a “hands on” experience with the new toy (aka Chrome) so, without further delay…
Prerequisites
Build environment
- Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or later, or Windows Vista.
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (8.0). Visual Studio 2003 and 2008 are not supported.
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 (download).
- Windows Vista SDK 6.0 or later (download). The Windows 2008 SDK is also supported. To integrate the SDK with Visual Studio, select Microsoft Windows SDK from the Start menu, then Visual Studio Registration > Integrate Windows SDK with Visual Studio 2005
Chromium checkout scripts
Download the depot_tools_win.zip package, which contains gclient, gcl, and svn
The depot_tools package automatically updates itself every time gclient is run. See the depot_tools page if you want to disable this behavior.
Getting the code
Create a directory (with no spaces anywhere in the path name) to hold your source code. In this example we’ll assume it’s c:\trunk, but other names are fine.
Before syncing the client, visit the Chromium Buildbot waterfall and make sure it says the tree is OPEN at the top. [Note: If this part of the infrastructure is not yet working, please check the topic of the #chromium IRC channel on irc.freenode.net instead.] If you sync while the tree is CLOSED, the code may not compile or link. Once you’ve verified that the tree is open, run the following commands (using your directory in place of c:\trunk):
cd c:\trunk
gclient config http://src.chromium.org/svn/trunk/src
gclient sync
You can expect this to take about an hour.
gclient config only needs to be run once to set up your working directory. It creates a .gclient file in your source directory that identifies the corresponding structure to pull from the repository. gclient sync will create several subdirectories in your tip directory. To update your tree in the future, you only need to run gclient sync from that directory. More information about gclient is available from the gclient wiki.
Building Chromium
Open the chrome/chrome.sln solution file in Visual Studio and build the solution. This can take from 15 to 40 minutes.
If you just want the Chromium browser, and none of the tests, you can speed up your build by right-clicking chrome_exe in the solution explorer and selecting Build. You may want to make sure this project is the Startup project (which will display as bold) by right-clicking it and selecting Set as Startup Project. This will make Chromium (as opposed to some random test) build and run when you press F5.
Accelerating the build
In decreasing order of speedup:
- Install Microsoft hotfix 935225.
- Install Microsoft hotfix 947315.
- Use a true multicore processor (ie. an Intel Core Duo 2; not a Pentium 4 HT).
- Use 3 parallel builds. In Visual Studio 2005, you will find the option in Tools > Options… > Projects and Solutions > Build and Run > maximum number of parallel project builds.
- Disable your anti-virus software for .ilk, .pdb, .cc, .h files and only check for viruses on modify. Disable scanning the directory where your sources reside. Don’t do anything stupid.
- Store and build the Chromium code on a second hard drive. It won’t really speed up the build but at least your computer will stay responsive when you do gclient sync or a build.
- Defragment your hard drive regularly.
- Disable virtual memory.
Optional
Rebuild / Clean
Build Chromium with JavaScriptCore
$ JS_ENGINE_TYPE=_kjs devenv chrome_kjs.sln
Troubleshooting
Build failures on Vista
Compilation failures
- Make sure you have SP1 for Visual Studio 2005. It’s required. Really.
- Sometimes Visual Studio does the wrong thing when building Chromium and gets stuck on a bogus error. A good indication of this is if it is only failing for one person but others (including the Buildbots) are not complaining. To resolve this, try the following steps:
- Close Visual Studio.
- Sync to the tip of tree and ensure there are no conflicts (“svn st” should not show any “C“s in front of files that you’ve changed).
- If there were conflicts, sync again after resolving them.
- Manually erase the output directory (chrome\Debug and chrome\Release. Using the command line, you can use “erase /S /Q Debug Release” from the chrome directory to do this, or “rm -rf Debug Release” if you have Unix-like tools installed.
- Restart Visual Studio and open the Chromium solution.
- Rebuild the solution.
chrome_kjs.sln tempfile problems
3>Error in tempfile() using /tmp/dftables-XXXXXXXX.in: Parent directory (/tmp/) is not writable
3> at /cygdrive/c/b/slave/WEBKIT~1/build/webkit/third_party/JavaScriptCore/pcre/dftables line 236
3>make: *** [chartables.c] Error 255
- Edit the NT permissions on third_party\cygwin\tmp to allow Modify and Write actions for Everyone and machine\Users. Cygwin is able to figure this out. Or,
- Figure out what went wrong with your checkout and try again – try doing the checkout from cmd instead of from a Cygwin shell, then verify that the permissions aren’t completely blank in your Cygwin installation. Or,
- Bypass Cygwin’s access control (NT’s will still be in effect) by editing webkit\build\JavaScriptCore\prebuild.bat and webkit\build\WebCore\prebuild.bat to include the following line before invoking anything that uses Cygwin:
set CYGWIN=nontsec
Running Chromium
The chrome.exe executable can be found at chrome/Debug/chrome.exe or chrome/Release/chrome.exe, depending on the selected build configuration.
Debugging
Because of Chromium’s unique architecture, there are a number of special challenges associated with development. See Debugging Chromium for more information.
Contributing
Once you’re comfortable with building Chromium, read the Contributing Code page for information about writing code for Chromium and contributing it.
Packaging
If you want to package your build into a zip file, do the following:
cd /path/to/chrome
./tools/build/win/make_zip.sh Release my-chromium
This will create my-chromium.zip. You can change Release to Debug if you want to zip up the debug build instead.
Troubleshooting
Error message: This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect or The system cannot execute the specified program
Install Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 (download).
Additional (free) downloads
Once Visual Studio is installed, you need to download and install some more software.
- Download and install Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1.
Depending on your computer, installation can take about an hour, and you might need to reboot. - Download and install the Microsoft Windows SDK.
You might need to reboot. You can save space by not installing the documentation and code samples.
Note: Although the SDK says it’s for Vista, it works on both XP and Vista. If you already have the Microsoft 2008 SDK, you don’t need to install a new one. - Integrate the SDK with Visual Studio: Start > All Programs > Microsoft Windows SDK > Visual Studio Registration > Integrate Windows SDK with Visual Studio 2005
- Get the Chromium depot_tools:
- Download depot_tools.zip.
- Unzip the file.
Note: If you have Cygwin installed, don’t use its unzip tool; it will mess up the permissions. - Add the depot tools directory to your PATH. Example: C:\bin\depot_tools
Note: By default, the depot_tools will automatically update to the latest version every time you run gclient. See the depot_tools page if you want to disable this behavior.
Chromium code
To bootstrap using the tarball:
- Make sure that you have a program that can untar .tar.gz files. Examples include the open-source 7-Zip archiver, the free BsdTar utility (part of LibArchive), and WinZip. Note: Cygwin’s tar tool will not work; it will mess up the permissions.
- Download the source tarball.
- Choose a directory to hold your source code. Example: c:\chromiumtrunk
Important: Make sure the directory path has no spaces.
- Untar the source tarball into the directory you’ve chosen. Example: If you’re using LibArchive, issue the following command:
“C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin\bsdtar.exe” -xzf chromium.tgz - Optionally, sync to the latest revision of Chromium:
- Visit the Chromium Buildbot waterfall to see the state of the tree. [Note: If this part of the infrastructure is not yet working, please check the topic of the #chromium IRC channel on irc.freenode.net instead.] If the top of the waterfall says:
OPEN – The tree is in a good state and you should be able to compile the code. Go to the next step.
CLOSED – There might be compile or test failures. You can download the code, but you’ll get those same failures when you try to compile or run tests. Best to check back later. - In a shell window, execute the following commands:cd c:\chromiumtrunk
gclient sync
The gclient tool is included in the depot tools described above. The first time you execute gclient, there will be a delay (a minute or so) while it updates the depot tools.
- Visit the Chromium Buildbot waterfall to see the state of the tree. [Note: If this part of the infrastructure is not yet working, please check the topic of the #chromium IRC channel on irc.freenode.net instead.] If the top of the waterfall says:
To check out directly from SVN:
You’ll use the gclient depot tool to download the Chromium code from its SVN repository.
- Create a directory to hold your source code. Example: c:\chromiumtrunk
Important: Make sure the directory path has no spaces.- Visit the Chromium Buildbot waterfall to see the state of the tree. [Note: If this part of the infrastructure is not yet working, please check the topic of the #chromium IRC channel on irc.freenode.net instead.] If the top of the waterfall says:
OPEN – The tree is in a good state and you should be able to compile the code. Go to the next step.
CLOSED – There might be compile or test failures. You can download the code, but you’ll get those same failures when you try to compile or run tests. Best to check back later.- In a shell window, execute the following commands:
cd c:\chromiumtrunk
gclient config http://src.chromium.org/svn/trunk/src
gclient sync - Visit the Chromium Buildbot waterfall to see the state of the tree. [Note: If this part of the infrastructure is not yet working, please check the topic of the #chromium IRC channel on irc.freenode.net instead.] If the top of the waterfall says:
The first time you execute gclient, there will be a delay (a minute or so) while it updates the depot tools. Downloading the Chromium code takes about an hour.
Build and launch Chromium
- Launch Visual Studio.
- Choose File > Open Project/Solution…, go to the src\chrome directory (under c:\chromiumtrunk or wherever you put the Chromium files), and open the file chrome.sln.
- In the Solution Explorer, go to the App directory, right-click chrome_exe, and choose Set as StartUp Project.
- Set the user profile used by your build of Chromium:
- Right-click chrome_exe, and choose Properties.
- In the left column, choose Configuration Properties > Debugging.
- In the right column, change the value of Command Arguments to something like this:
–user-data-dir=c:\tmp\DebugProfile
Click Ok. Chromium creates the specified profile directory (c:\tmp\DebugProfile in the previous example) if the directory doesn’t already exist.
Note: If you don’t set the profile, then if you try to launch Chromium when Google Chrome or Chromium is already running, a new window comes up in the already running browser. This behavior ensures exclusive access to the user profile, but it means that you can’t debug your version of Chromium!
Warning: If the latest build of Chromium has a new profile format, Google Chrome and older versions of Chromium might not be able to read that format. Unless you set the profile, you could lose your Google Chrome profile data.
Ikimono Gakari – Bluebird (Aio Aoi Ano Sora)
Arigato gosaimazu, Lynda-chan!!
Ikimono Gakari – Bluebird
Habataitara modorenai to itte
Mezashita no wa aoi aoi ano sora
Kanashi mi wa mada oberarezu
Setsunasa wa ima tsukami hajimeta
Anata e idaku kono kanjou mo
ima kotoba ni kawatteku
Michi naru sakai no yume kara mezamete
Kono hane wo hiroge tobi datsu
Habataitana modorenai to itte
Mezashita no wa aoi aoi ano sora
Tsuki nuketara mitskaru to shitte
Fuikiru hodo
Aoi aoi ano sora
Aoi aoi ano sora
Aoi aoi ano sora
English
You say if you could fly, you’d never come back down
You only have eyes for that blue, blue sky
You’ve yet to learn what sadness is
And are now just grasping what pain is like
Even the feelings I have for you
Must be expressed in words
As you awake from a dream into an unknown world
Spread your wings and take flight!
You say if you could fly, you’d never come back down
You only have eyes for that blue, blue sky
You know if you can just make it through, you’ll find what you seek
So keep trying to break free
to that blue, blue sky
to that blue, blue sky
to that blue, blue sky
Spanish
Dices que si pudieras volar, jamás volverías al suelo
Sólo tienes ojos para ese azul, cielo azul
Aún tienes que comprender lo que es la tisteza
Y ahora, apenas conoces el dolor
Hasta los sentimientos que tengo por tí
Deben ser expresados con palabras
como si despertaras de un sueño a un mundo desconocido
Abre tus alas y alza el vuelo!
Dices que si pudieras volar, jamás volverías al suelo
Sólo tienes ojos para ese azul, cielo azul
Sabes que si te esfuerzas, encontrarás lo que buscas
Así que sigue intentando liberarte
A ese azul, cielo azul
A ese azul, cielo azul
A ese azul, cielo azul
Next .Net Community Reunion
Tema: Desarrollando en Componentes VSTO 2008 ( Tema de Lanzamiento 2008 )
Expositor: Manolo Herrera (MVP Visual Client Application).
Fecha: 25 de junio del 2008.
Horario: 18:30 a 20:30 horas.
Lugar: Universidad Galileo 4to nivel torre I.
Otros: Se rifaran Licencias VSTO 2008, SQL 2008 y Server 2008.
El que lleve mas amigos tendrá un kit de licencias de promoción del lanzamiento de VSTO 2008, Sql 2008 y Server 2008. También habrán vouchers para rifar.
Parqueo No inlcuido.
Photo Synth
Yep! Seems I’m out looking for it… As many of you know I really like to fool around with Photoshop, and quite recently with Expression Blend. I really like to be able to play around with my photographs and videos “a tad over the usual line” and this really blew me away! so, allow me to introduce my new Photo-Toy:
Photosynth
Photosynth is an amazing new technology from Microsoft Live Labs that will change forever the way you think about digital photos. This little piece of software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.
With Photosynth you can:
- Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
- Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photo whether it’s megapixels or gigapixels in size.
- See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
- Find similar photos to the one you’re currently viewing.
- Send a collection – or a particular view of one – to a friend.
Sounds a little too good to be true? The NASA collection!! (It really knocked my socks off)

Link:
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/collectionHome.htm
Enough with the mushy comments, let’s check the important stuff!
System Requirements:
- Operating System: Only Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista RC1 or later are supported at this time.
- Web Browser: IE6, IE7, Firefox 1.5 and Firefox 2.0
- Memory: 256 MB of memory is a bare minimum; 1GB recommended.
- Disk: This technology preview uses almost no disk space. The ActiveX control is less than 5MB in size, and no local disk storage is used when the code is running.
- Graphics: Photosynth has been tested on graphics cards that are “Vista Aero Ready”. This includes: support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum), and 32 bits per pixel. If you want to find out whether your card is suitable, the Vista Upgrade Advisor tool will tell you. Photosynth may run on cards that do not meet this requirement, but performance may be poor and functionality may be impaired.
Link:
A new Beginning? .Net Community
.Net Community Launch 2008
Universidad Galileo
Edificio Manuel F. Ayau, Zona 10 Guatemala Guatemala Guatemala
| Languages: | Español. |
| Products: | SQL Server Visual Studio. |
| Audiences: | Developer. |
| Event Id: 1032377093 |
General Information:
.Net Developer Community
Featured Technologies:
- C#
-
Silverlight
-
SQL Server
-
LINQ
Presenters:
-
José Rolando Guay
-
-
Carlos Lone
-
Top 10 Reasons to Install Windows Server 2008
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hero’s Come Back
A short while ago, a friend of mine asked me for these lyrics…
Ok, Powell here you go… Dattebayo!!
Hero’s Comeback
Nobody Knows
Tooku de kikoeru koe wo hitori
Hitori mata hitori tachiagaru doushi
Kurikaesu dake no fudan doori kutsugaesu
Junbi iize are you ready?
Karadajuu furuwasu shindou ni hageshiku uchinarase yo stomping
Taezu tsuki ugokasu call me kawarazu yuru ga nutsukamu story
Come on!!
Everybody stand up! Agero kyou ichiban no jikan da
Me ni mo tomaranu supiido hantaa
Daremo ga mina toriko kanban yeah! (Come on!)
Everybody hands up! Matashita na hero’s come back!!
Zujou kazoe yubi oru count down
Ikuze 3-2-1 make some noise!
What you gonna do? What you gonna do?
Taemanaku nari hibiki kizamu
Deja vu yori mo gotsui shougeki ga
Zenshin wo hashiri hanasan break it down
Turn it up (Turn it up) hey kikoekka?
Sakenda kinou made no koto ga
Kawaru darou madaminu asu e
Koborete afureta omoi no bun made
Machinimatta show time saitechiru shukumei
Dochira ni katamuku shouhai no yukue
Agura kaiterya kyou nimo tsubureru
Nagashita chi to ase onore de nugue
Negai mo puraido mo fukume subete wo seotta tagai no haigo
Nasake wo kaketerya dame ninaru ze
Tamote potensharu mentaru men
Neko mo shakushi mo matta you na hiiroo
Hitoban dake no goran, roman hikou
Oo ii nee sonnan ja nee sa
Kick on the corner mada tari nee ka?
Itsumo to chigau hijou na jinkaku mamoru no sa subete
Like a taamineetaa
Yon kai, go kai de tatsu hairaito (fly high, yeah!)
Isso kono ba de tsutaetaru zo
Everybody stand up! Agero kyou ichiban no jikan da
Me ni mo tomaranu supiido hantaa
Daremo ga mina toriko kanban yeah! (Come on!)
Everybody hands up! Matashita na hero’s come back!!
Zujou kazoe yubi oru count down
Ikuze 3-2-1 make some noise!
Mou tashou no risuku wa kakugo desho
Nanka korunda tte tatsu (get it on)
Nare ai ja nai ze kami hitoe no sesshon
Irikunda kanjou kidzukiageta kesshou
Made in hyuuman no dorama no enchou
Marude moesakaru yoshihara no enjou
Endoresu saki mo korogaru nichijou
Warau hodo baka ni narerutte koto
Resseifuku mukaikaze nimo maken
Makikomu nandomo dekuwashite kita ze
Ikudotonaku tatsu kono ba no batoru
Tatakai kata nara kono mi ga satoru
Ichiya niya no tukedakiba ja
Mamoru mon ga chigau na shirohata wo furi na
Hi no moe akogareru hikage wo shiru
Iiwake wa kikan sorekoso ga real
Faito maido i’m proud
Nanikarananima de mada ucchi yanai zo
Yes ka no ja nai itsuka kou warau
Nana kara patto kimeru iku ze aibou
Wakiagaru kansei ga yuuki tonaru
Tachiagareba ima ijou kurushimi tomonau
Soredemo saigo wa kitto warau
Subete sarau shouri to kansei
Everybody stand up! Agero kyou ichiban no jikan da
Me ni mo tomaranu supiido hantaa
Daremo ga mina toriko kanban yeah! (Come on!)
Everybody hands up! Matashita na hero’s come back!!
Zujou kazoe yubi oru count down
Ikuze 3-2-1 make some noise!
Everybody stand up! Agero kyou ichiban no jikan da
Me ni mo tomaranu supiido hantaa
Daremo ga mina toriko kanban yeah! (Come on!)
Everybody hands up! Matashita na hero’s come back!!
Zujou kazoe yubi oru count down
Ikuze 3-2-1 make some noise!
MSDN Tour Guatemala
Today, I got a Special Invitation for our first MSDN Tour 2008.
If you didn’t get the invite, Allow me to treat you:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Great Book: Silverlight and ASP.NET Revealed
Nice and easy, it teaches to incorporate Silverlight into an ASP.NET web site and use the ASP.NET controls that render Silverlight content. (I think is proper to point out that Silverlight and ASP.NET Revealed assumes that the reader has a deep knowledge of ASP.NET, but little or no knowledge of Silverlight)
Here’s some Info, just in case you want to take it for a spin:
Silverlight and ASP.NET Revealed By Matthew MacDonald
ISBN13: 978-1-59059-939-6
ISBN10: 1-59059-939-X
50 pp.
Published Dec 2007
-
Archives
- October 2008 (1)
- September 2008 (1)
- June 2008 (2)
- May 2008 (1)
- April 2008 (1)
- February 2008 (2)
- January 2008 (4)
- December 2007 (5)
- November 2006 (1)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS









